This invention relates to an arrangement or apparatus for use in the treatment of surfaces.
Throughout the specification and claims, the term "surface treatment" is used. This term is used to refer to the treatment of any appropriate surface, such as for example by coating, abrading, cutting, brushing, polishing buffing and the like. These are by way of example only however. Such treatment can be applied to any and all appropriate surfaces, such as for example wood, synthetic and natural resins, resin bonded materials, cement, ferro cement, earthenware, wallboards, chip board, plaster board, fibreboard, metal and the like. Again these are by way of example only. The invention has application to all surfaces.
Up until this time, various arrangements and means have been provided for the treatment of surfaces and for the preparation of surfaces for varying purposes. For example, arrangements and implements have been provided for sanding down wooden surfaces, to provide a smooth surface, prior to painting or varnishing. Arrangements and implements have also been provided which smooth down roughened surfaces, in order to avoid rough and unpleasant surfaces which can be displeasing from an aesthetic point of view and capable of causing injury or damage.
It has also been known up until this time to provide various arrangements for obtaining a smooth or fair line or clean surface, or indeed a convex or concave surface, (such as is required on marine craft).
The methods and arrangements for surface treatment, used up until this time, have often involved the use of implements or machines, employing a basically rotary, orbital or continuous belt action.
Referring in particular to situations where is has been desired to prepare and finish round or curved surfaces, (such as for example during the construction of marine craft), initial preparation is usually carried out by such known methods and apparatus, with finishing usually being carried out by hand. The finishing is therefore often carried out by one or more operators, using sand paper or sand paper connected to a base board.
While many of these known methods and arrangements have been reasonably satisfactory for many purposes, there have also been a number of disadvantages, in that in particular the requirement for hand finishing (which is nearly always necessary), always involves substantial time and effort from a labour point of view. In particular, this applies when finishing curved surfaces. It has been found to be a particular problem with marine craft, and in particular boat hulls. This applies in particular to relatively small boats, where it is very important that a fair line be achieved from bow to stern; from top side to keel and on the diagonals. Indeed it is important that a fair line be obtained in all directions, so that not only is the hull of the boat aesthetically pleasing, but so that water flow is aided and effectively permitted around the hull of a marine craft. As will be appreciated, this minimises water resistance and therefore provides for maximum hull performance.
Up until this time, when finishing boat hulls, it has been the general practice to remove most of the severe irregularities on the surface, (such as high spots), by the use of known methods and machines; such as for example rotary, orbital and continuous belt action arrangements. A fair line has then been obtained by using hand sanders or similar hand operated arrangements. As will be appreciated, this is particularly time consuming and expensive.
For example, in a number of cases, hand powered sanding boards have been used, these including a basic board or support arrangement which has sand paper or similar abrasive material attached thereto. These hand operated boards are gripped by an operator and are merely moved backwards and forwards manually. Eventually, the appropriate and necessary fair line is achieved.
It will be appreciated however, that such hand operation is hard, tedious and particularly time consuming work. In some cases, and depending of course upon the size of the marine craft concerned, it may require months of hand fairing or hand sanding, to obtain an acceptable and satisfactory fair line and standard of finish. This is particularly so where it is necessry to finish a high class or high performance, hand constructed marine craft.
Reference is made by way of example only, to the problems encountered in the preparation of marine craft and boats. However, it should be appreciated that similar problems arise in other areas, such as for example building construction areas, and in the area relating to the preparation of moulds and plugs, (such as for use in the production of boat hulls, swimming pools, saunas and the like). In addition, the shortcomings also exist in the automotive panelbeating business, where for example soft plastics or soft metal fillers are used to fill dents and damaged portions of panelwork. Following this filling, the surfaces must be abraded or cut back to produce fair curves or a fair line, relative to the undamaged portion of the panels or panels, of the body of the automobile.
Thus, it will be appreciated that once again, an amount of hand and manual work is required, which as stated above, is hard, tedious and time consuming.
A further problem with methods and arrangements used up until this time, is that they have been unable to satisfactorily conform to desired surface shapes of materials, being finished, and thus cannot be satisfactorily used for sanding or preparing surfaces for painting, varnishing and other finishes.
In addition to the above, rotary sanders and surface grinders (and to a certain extent orbital sanders), operate with such an action that when using a coarse grit, or even a moderately coarse grit or abrasive surface, the surface being treated is often marred with scour marks, such as for example circular scour marks. Even though it may be possible to remove these with a good hand finish, such scour marks often require a substantial amount of hand sanding or hand work before they are effectively removed.
Orbital sanders used up until this time cannot, it has been found, operate hard up against any projecting surface. For example, against curves or angels at an overlap point in any horizontal weatherboard sheeting of a house, or even in a vertical board and batten sheathing. The action of an orbital sander causes banging and often action against projecting surfaces, and sometimes denting or damaging of the projecting surfaces.
Belt sanders have been used up until this time in certain areas of surface treatment. Such arrangements have not normally been capable of being used for sanding or treatment, hard up against any projection, as the belts usually run centrally over rollers and an intermediate platten. In models which have been designed and manufactured to allow relatively close sanding, this is often restricted to one side of the machine. In the case of sanding such surfaces of vertical board and batten walls, using belt sanders, this would require the machine to be reversed. Thus, in such cases, the contact surface of the sand paper or abrasive belt, would tend to drive the machine downward. This then requires some degree of strength to allow sufficient control or operation, which is particularly tiring from an operators point of view. In certain belt sanders used up until this time, it has also been a problem that the belts sometimes become dislodged and removed from the rollers and plattens, this causing delays and in some cases damage. Further problem with belt sanders used up until this time, is that sanding work (and thus surface treatment) effectively only takes place under the central platten and not under the end rollers. Thus, it is not possible with belt sanders known up until this time, to effectively and fully sand into corners and similar locations.
Problems have also been encountered with known arrangements used for cleaning, polishng, buffing and the like.
It will be appreciated from the above that there are a number of known methods and arrangements for use in surface treatment. It will also be appreciated however that there are a number of problems associated therewith.
It is an object of this invention to go at least some way towards overcoming or minimising one or more of these problems.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a straight forward and efficient arrangement for surface treatment.